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DELIVEREn AT THE 



P 



EDICATION OF THE pTATUE 



?' 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 



ERECTED IN FRONT OF THE CITY HALL, WASHINGTON, D. C, 



nr INVITATIOlJf OF 



IIOX. JIICHAED WALLACII, NOBLE D. LARNER, ESQ. 
AND ASBUPtY LLOYD, ESQ., 

MANAGERS OF TIIH LINCOLN MONUMENT ASSOCIATION. 



BENJAMIN B:'VrENCH. 



WASHINGTON CITY: 

McGILL & WITIIEROW, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS. 

1868. 



M^^atf^itf^itf^ 



^m^m^m0m^m 



JLDDRESS 



DEI.IVEUED AT THE 



DEDICATION OF THE STATUE 



ABEAHAM LINCOLIST, 



ERECTED IN FRONT OF THE CITY HALL, WASHINGTON, D. C, 



BY INVITATION OF 



HON. EICHAED WALLACH, NOBLE D. LARNER, ESQ. 
AND ASBUEY LLOYD, ESQ., 

MANAGERS OF THE LINCOLN MONUMENT ASSOCIATION. 



RENJAMIN ]V rRENCH. 





WASHINGTON CITY: 
McGILL & WITHEROW, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS. 

1868. 



,8 



ADDRESS. 



Mr, FiiENCfi, having, as Grand Master of Masons, per- 
formed the Masonic ceremonies of dedication, said : 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-Citizens : 

Lest my position be misunderstood, I will state, before 
commencing the delivery of the address, that I appear here 
as an old citizen of Washington, npon the invitation of the 
Lincoln Monument Association, and not as Grand Master of 
Masons. 

He then proceeded as follows : 
M'j respected Fellow- Citizens : 

We have met here this day, to dedicate to the people 
of the United States, here, in the central part of their 
own capital, the form and semblance of pne whom 
they dearly loved in life, and whose memory they can never 
cease to revere ; who, three years ago this day, yielded up 
his life a martyr to his love of his countrj-, his love of his 
fellow-men, and his unshaken conlidence in the affection 
and reverence for his person, of all around him. 

The statue, which we now inaugurate, is emphatically the 
oftering of the citizens of Washington to the memory of the 
man whose form and features it represents. 

In Ajiril, 18(35, the Councils of the City, on motion of 
Nol)le ]). Liirner, Esq., Councihnan from the Third Ward, 
adopted, unanimously, a resolution, appointing a Committee, 
to consist of the Mayor, and tiiree Members of each Board, 
for the purpose of forming a " Washington Lincoln Monument 
Assodction." 

That Committee, in conformity with the resolution, elected 
a large number of their most respectable fellow-citizens, 
who, with the original Committee, formed the Association, 
with the Hon. Richard Wallach, Mayor, as President, 
C. S. NoYES, Esq., as Secretary, and (tEo. W. Riggs, Esq., 
as Treasurer. 



Subscriptions were solicited from the citizens ofWasliing- 
ton, and a sum sufticient to secure tlie erection of the statue 
was obtained. 

A contract was entered into witii Mr. Lot Fhannery, of 
Washington, to furnish the statue, and it now stands before 
yon, the work of his hands. 

AVho can ever forget that night of horror when the awful 

intelligence was borne by the telegraphic wires all through 

the land that Abraham Lincoln had been struck down by 

the hands of an assassin? 

" Oh night of woe, 
How are ye joined witii iiell in triple knot." 

And that day of grief which followed, when the messenger 
of death went forth with the sad tidings that our good Presi- 
dent was no longer of earth-^can it be forgotten ? 

There is not one within the reach of my voice — and I 
think I may truly add, there is not one in this broad land — 
to whom it is not a wonder and a mystery how the people 
bore up as they did under so terrible, so appalling, a 
calamity! But they did bear up ; and although the Presi- 
dent, whom they almost adored, was dead, the nation 
lived! 

And let me say here, that I believe nothing save the final 
disruption of "the great globe itself" can destroy this 
nation. 'J'he providence of God watches over us, sustains 
us through all our trials, and will preserve us as a free and 
independent people through all time. 

It does not require any monument nor any v^'ords to per- 
petuate the memory of that,great, and good, and pure man. 
Monumental marble may crund)le into dust; bronze may 
melt away ; granite may ^lerisli from the earth ; but the 
memory of Abraham Lincoln shall live in human bosoms, 
and be perpetuated on the living pages of history, as long as 
aw/ nation or people shall exist on earth. 

But it is a satisfaction and a pleasure, tinged with melan- 
choly, to look upon that venerated form, and to view those 
features, which, wliatcver else they may indicate, if true to 
the life, will glow with goodness, kindness, and love, and 
whereon never rested for a moment a single characteristic 
other thini such as gave outward proof of a good and loving 
heart, a conscience void of pttence, and charity towards all 
mankind. 

Oh, Heaven ! that such a man should have died, at such a 
time, and in such a manner! 

I hai'dly know, my fellow-citizens, where to begin on an 



occasion like tliis. Although the field is ample, it has bcoii 
thoroughly gleaned by the pen of the historian, and the 
harvest has been garnered in the bosoms of a loving people. 
Still I am aware of your aftection for his memory, and tliat 
you never tire in listening to a rehearsal of his virtues. 

Abraham Lincoln was unlike any other man. He seemed 
to be born to fill the very station he occupied for the last 
five years of his life, and the faith that was in us stands firm 
to this day, that he alone could have carried the country 
safely through the awful perils that beset it while he filled 
the responsible and daniijeroas position of Chief Magistrate 
We can say of him, with as much truth as it was said of 
one of the greatest and best of English statesmen, he av.i>, 
indeed, 

"Tlie pilot that weathered the storm." 

Let us attempt to analyze the man. 

He was possessed of a heart as pure as the snow-flake as 
it falls from above. Although of great simplicity of niiixl 
and manner, there was in that mind a penetration wliicii 
seemed to read the very thoughts of others, and which spake 
through the eye, in language more powerful than could be 
uttered in words, a defiance to any one who sought to 
deceive him. 

I have heard it called "shrewdness." It was more than 
shrewdness; and I hardly know how otherwise tocharacterize 
it, but in the strong language of the Apostle, as "the sword 
of the spirit"; for as I have myself seen the searching, 
powerful, inquisitive expression of that remarkable eye, 
when turned upon one whose statement the President had 
cause to doubt, it has seemed to me to pierce the buckler of 
deception through and through, and that the wearer Avas 
conscious of his discornflture before a word was uttered I 

With a disposition as genial as a bright May morning; 
with a temper that could hardl}- be ruffled by the most 
untowai'd circumstances; with a soul absolutely beaming 
through the eyes; with an aflection that captivated every 
one, he was possessed of a firmness of pui'pose, in his deter- 
mination to do right, that could not be overcome. 

Pride of place was unknown to his character. To him, 
that spark of the Eternal Avhich gleamed in the bosom of 
the most humble, shone as bright as if it animated the 
breast of the proudest and highest in the land; and the 
widow and the fatherless ever found him a ready listener to 
the tale of distress, and never left him witluMit words of 
consolation, and acts which spoke louder than words! 



6 

Even the Iniignage that he used was as peculiar to him as 
was any other peculiarity of his nature. Terse, pointed, 
plain ; never wandering among the mazes of rhetoric after 
adornment, but simple as the man himself, and going as 
straight to the mark at which he aimed as an arrow from the 
bow of Tell. Solomon, in all the glory of his proverbs, 
might have envied him, had he lived in these days of diffusive 
writing, and still more diflusive speaking! 

That single sentence in his last inaugural, coming up, 
undefiled, from the pure well of his noble heart — 

" With malice toward none ; with charity for all ; with firmness in the right, 
as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in "• — • 

spoke the character of the man, and will live among the 
sayings of great and good ^iien, as long as human lips can 
speak, or types can print ; and, as we read it now, we can 
scarcely repi-ess a tear as we reflect how soon after it was 
said, the voice that said it ,was silenced forever, and the 
iccrk that he was in was finished ! 

The first we know of Abraham Lincoln as a national 
man, is that he came into tb^ House of Representatives of 
the United States, as a member from Illinois, at the first 
session of the 30th Congress, on the first Monday of Decem- 
ber, 1847. He served through that Congress, without any 
particular distinction, except that he was regarded as an 
lionest, kind-hearted, genial, niirth-loving man, popular with 
all who knew him, and, as the few speeches he then made 
indicated, a man of no inconsiderable talent. But no one, 
as I think, mistrusted the hidden mine of ability which 
existed under that unpretending exterior. 

In the spirited canvass between him and the lamented 
Douglas, in 1858, he so conducted his part in the contro- 
versy as to convince his eloquent and talented competitor 
that he had 

" A foernan worthy of his steel ;" 

and the eyes of the whole people were turned upon him as 
"the rising man." 

Whenever the people begin really to love a man, when he 
has fairly stolen away their; hearts, they invariably l)estow 
upon him a pet name. I believe I may say that the home- 
lier the name, the better the^individual is beloved. So we 
find in the annals of those days that "Honest Old Abe," as 
a synonym for Abraham Lincoln, began to be a household 
pbrase. There is probably no better indication of the loves 
of Iho people — the real, genuine aftection of the masses — for 



men, than in tliis pet nomenclature that they give. We can 
readily call to mind, " The Father of his Country," " The 
Mill-Boy of the Slashes," " Old Hickory," " The Defender of 
the Constitution," " Old Zack," with his " little more grape, 
Captain Bragg," " Old Ironsides," and many more. 

But we must return to the subject of our remarks. 

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the Repub- 
lican candidate for President of the United States, and the 
nomination was hailed throughout the loyal portion of the 
Union with an enthusiasm that gave assurance that he was 
truly the candidate of the friends of the Federal Govern- 
ment. He was triumphantly elected; and his election was, 
as we all know, the signal for the commencement of that 
dreadful effort to dissolve the Union, that ended in four 
years of disastrous war, and the final triumph of the old flag 
— but at a terrible sacrifice of human life, and an immense 
expenditure of national treasure! 

Through this fratricidal war, Abraham Lincoln stood at 
the head of the Government, calm, cool, firm and deter- 
mined. Ever hopeful in the darkest hours of the struggle, 
and never for a moment ceasittg to place his trust in that — 

" Divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough-hew them how we will." 

But the history of those dreadful years has been so many 
times written, and is so familiar to you all, that it wouhl be 
a trespass upon 3'our time and patience to repeat it here. I 
shall, therefore, content myself by saying that President 
Lincoln was found grandly equal to the great trust reposed 
in him, and performed every duty with a heroic firmness 
which met the admiration of all his friends. 

But, while I refrain from recapitulating to you the public 
history that marked the momentous era of his term of office, 
I will endeavor to interest you by relations touching his 
more private life and character, some of which, in conse- 
quence of the official relations which for nearly his entire 
occu[)ancy of the Presidential chair, existed between us, are, 
probably, known to no other person. No week passed that 
I did not see him, and I was often with him many times a 
week. This, of course, with a man bke him, led to numer- 
ous conversations between us, and enabled me, with no 
particular intention of doing so, to observe the peculiar 
characteristics of Mr. Lincoln. 

I will take the liberty, however, before eommencing that 
part of my address, to give yon a brief r.ceount of the 
inaiii2;uration ceremonies of March 4tli, 18(11, as written 



8 

down by myself at the time — I having been honored with 
the Chief Marshalship for the occasion. 

"At a few minutes after eleven, the procession, being 
formed in line in front of the City Hall, wheeled out into 
column of march and moved towards Willard's. In front 
of Willard's it again formed in line, and so remained until 
ten minutes past twelve, when President Buchanan, who 
had been detained at the Capitol by otiicial duty, arrived. 
He, with President Lincoln, Col. Baker, and Mr. Pearce, of 
the Senate, then took their seats in an open carriage, which 
was received into the column of march with a proper salute 
from the military, music, and the cheering of the populace. 
The column then moved toward the Capitol. No more im- 
posing or more orderly pageant ever passed along Pennsyl- 
vania Avenue. At the north door of the Capitol the 
President and President elect were received and escorted 
in. In a few minutes, they, with their attendants, appeared 
on the platform of the eastei-n portico, where Mr. Lincoln 
delivered his inaugural, and was sworn into office." * * 

" The inauguration ceremonies over, we escorted the new 
President to the White House, where he received all comers 
with that cordial welcome that so strongly marks the sin- 
cerity of the man. 

"In the procession was a triumphal car, splendidly trimmed, 
ornamented, and arranged, iu which rode thirt3'-four young 
girls. On our return the girls all alighted, and I conducted 
them in and introduced them to the President. He asked 
to be allowed to kiss them all, and did so. It was a very 
interesting scene, and elicited much applause. The kisses 
bestowed b^^ that good man oii those young lips will only 
be forgotten when death has set his seal up^n them.'' 

Such was the peaceful inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, 
which so many had prophesied could never be accomplished 
without the shedding of human blood ! 

What I shall now say is from memoranda made at the 
time. 

In August, 1862, just before the second battle of Bull 
Ptui, in a conversation with the President, he asked me my 
age, I gave it to him ; when he remarked, with much 
emphasis, " Ten years older than I am, and ten years 
younger." I replied that he must not view his own years 
so disparagingly. When he repeated, "Yes, Mr. French, I 
am actually ten years older than you are; the cares aiid 
troubles that are upon me are ageing me rapidly; I feel it; 
and you will live to seo nie in my coffin." This was said 



9 

with deep solemnity, so much so that I felt sad, and tried to 
speak cheering words. 

Never, in all my intercourse with Mr. Lincoln, except on 
this occasion, and upon the death of his son William, did I 
witness any manifestation, in words, of despondency or 
grief. 

"When Willie died, although he bore liimsclf like a man 
and a Christian, his affections would assume their control 
over his sterner self, at times, and nature have her way. 

As an evidence of Mr. Lincoln's power over his feelings, 
I will mention that on arriving at the Executive mansion on 
Monday evening, March 2, 1863, to attend the reception 
then to take place, the President informed me that he had 
just received the news of the capture of our steam ram 
Indianola; " but," said he, " it is known to no one else here, 
and as I do not wish it known until the reception is over, 
please not to mention it." He made some further remarks 
as to the misfortunes that were befalling us. The visitors 
commenced arriving, and he stood there shaking hands, and 
conversing in his usual cordial and pleasant manner, until 
the reception was over, when he turned to me and said, " I 
am glad this reception is over; I have been assuming a 
cheerfulness that I could not feel, for I could not forget that 
we have lost the Lidianoln." 

That President Lincoln was beloved by every loyal heart 
we all know, but I cannot refrain from copying, from my 
own description of the dedication of the Xational Cemetery 
at Gettysburg, the following : 

"As soon as the hymn (the consecration hymn) was sung, 
Marshal Lamon introduced the. President of the United 
States, who, in a few brief but most apjiropriate words, dedi- 
cated the cemetery. 

" Abraham Lincoln is the idol of the American people at 
this moment. Any one who saw and heard, as I did, the 
hurricane of applause that met his every movement at Get- 
tysburg would know that he lived in every heart. It was no 
cold, iaint shadow of a kind reception, it was a tnrnultiious 
outpouring of exultation from true and loving hearts at the 
sight of a man whom everyone knew to be honest, atid true, 
and sincere, in everv act of his life, and every pulsation of his 
lieart. It was the spontaneous outburst of the heart-felt con- 
lidence of the people in their ow% President ! " . 

Perhajts no man living ever had a keener relish ibr the 
ludicrous tlian Mr. Lincoln, and his {lOwer of illustration by 
storv and anecdote was l)evond tliat of anv one with whom 



10 

I was ever acquainted ; and such was the tendency of his 
mind to mirth, tliat I have known him, when a grave question 
was propounded to him, to reply to it by relating some story 
perfectly illustrative of the answer required, but of such a 
nature that no one could resist an audible expression of 
merriment, in which he was certain most heartily to join; 
and although the surplus electricity of his nature seemed 
ever ready to pass off in a manner to make all around 
him innocently happ}-, he was ever careful to guard against 
injury to the feelings of any human being. And I think I 
can give the assurance that not one in a hundred of the 
gross stories that are now imputed to him, were ever even 
heard of, by him. 

To recall any of the illustrations that I have heard from 
his lips would be out of place here ; but I cannot refrain 
from stating one of his quaint and humorous pieces of advice 
to me, which you will all ajipreciate. 

The basement of the Executive mansion was at one time 
so infested with rats as to render it almost uninhabitable. 
I called the President's attention to the fact, and he said to 
me, with that inimitable twinkle of the eye, and expression 
of the countenance so remarkable in him, "Can 30U not 
procure a ferret — one of those little fellows that drive away 
the rats ? And while you are about it, perhaps it would be 
well to get several, and distribute them about the Depart- 
ments, /or there are rats everywhere .'" 

And the good President was so pleased with the idea, that 
he asked me afterwards, if I had got those ferrets. 

The kindness of his disposition, ami his readiness to 
indulge his children, may be illustrated by two occurrences 
that fell under my own observ.ation. 

The preparations had all been made for the family to leave 
the city house, and establish themselves for the summer at 
the Soldiers' Home. The carriage was at the door, and 
Mrs. Lincoln and Tad were in it. The President came out 
to join them, when Tad said, " I have not got my cat." The 
President replied, "You shall have your cat," and he went 
into the house and returned in a few minutes with Tad's 
cat in his arms. 

At another time, when I was with him in his ofhce, con- 
versing on official business, one of the servants came in and 
spoke to him. lie at once turned to me and asked me to 
excuse him for a short time, as he must go and give Tad his 
nu'diciiie, which he would take from no^:)ne else. 

Such acts as these do Inuior to human natnre, no matter 



11 

whether done by Presidents or peasants ; ever}- one who 
has a soul will appreciate and applaud them, and I have 
thought a thousand times, as I have seen the evidences of 
the minute attention given by the great and good Washing- 
ton, to the smallest matters that concerned his household, and 
his home, while leading the armies of the United States, or 
exercising the high functions of President of the infant 
Republic, how like, in many particulars, were these two 
truly great Presidents! 

Although President Lincoln was always ready to assume 
any official responsibility that his position required, his 
innate sense of propriety was such that he never knowingly 
encroached on the prerogatives of his subordinates, no mat- 
ter what their position might be, 

A somewhat curious instance of the delicacy of the Presi- 
dent in this particular, occurred in November, 1864. 

The day after the certain information of Mr, Lincoln's re- 
election reached this city, it occurred to him that the laborers 
at the Executive mansion ought to be granted a holiday. 
Almost any other man, being President of the United State's, 
and possessing the power to command, would have issued 
an order giving them a holiday. 

President Lincoln did no such thing, and what was my 
surprise at receiving a card from him, on which was written, 
in his well-known hand, and which I now have — 

"If Commipsioner of Public Buildings cliooses to give laborers at White 
House a holiday, I have no objection. 
" Nov. 9, 1864. A. Lincoln." 

Of course, the Commissioner did. choose, and the holiday 
was given. 

The autogra|)hs of tlic beloved President are eagerly 
sought for, and higlily valued; and as an evidence of this, I 
may say that I have seen a simple card, similar to the one 
above alluded to, on which some request was written bv Mr. 
Lincoln, elegantly framed, and suspended in the library of a 
gentleman in Massachusetts, and considered so precious a 
memorial that no money can purchase it. 

And the last manuscript he ever wrote Avith a pen, on the 
evening of his assas.^ination, is sacredly preserved, in like 
manner, in this city, by the gentleman for whom it was 
written. 

I do not know how I can more a}»propi lately close this, 
perhaps already too long address, than l)y reading an article 
prepared by mvself for one of the city newspa[tcrs, on the 
25]d of April, VsGo. It is as follows: 



12 

" On Friday morning last, at seven o'clock, all that was 
mortal of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of these 
United States, was borne from the Capitol, taking their 
departure for his home in Illinois, where tliey are to rest 
until the final resurrection. 

" The past week has been a sad one to the whole nation ; it 
has been particularly sad for Washington ; for here the un- 
paralleled atrocity that deprived a people of a President 
whom they dearly loved and almost worshipped, and came 
near snatching fi-om them a Secretary of State particularly 
eminent for a head and a heart that gave him an exalted 
place in the affections of all who knew him, was committed; 
and as the awful news spread abroad on the wings of the 
lightning, it carried with it sadness to every heart that beat 
responsive to the great principles of humanity which were 
so stronglv implanted in the bosom of our beloved Chief 
Magistrate. 

" At half past ten o'clock on Friday evening, the 14th 
inst., the bullet of the assassin sped through the brain of his 
illustrious victim, and from that instant he was as if he were 
dead, although he continued to breathe until the next morn- 
ing at twenty-two minutes past seven. 

" That Friday niglit was an awful one for Washington. 
The theatre where the horrid event occurred, was filled with 
people, and the appalling news spread, as it were in a mo- 
ment, to all parts of the city. There was no sleep that night. 
The long roll — that startling call to all military men, and to 
all civilians who understand it — was beat in the various 
camps within and about the city, and the troops were speedily 
under arms. 

" ' Ah, then and there was liurrying to and fro, 
And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, 
And cheeks all pale, which, but an hour ago, 
Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness.' 
* ***** 

" ' And there was mounting in hot liaste ; the steed, 
Tlie mustering squadron, and the clattering car. 
Went poui'ing forward with impetuous speed, 
And swiftly foi'ming in the ranks of war.' 

" Many knew not for a time what it all meant, but every 
one knew that some terrible calamity was upon us; and 
ere long the dread reality, that our President had been 
assassinated, and our Secretary of State stricken down by 
the dagger of some fiend in human shape, came to be known, 
and a cordon of ti'oops was soon posted all around the city, 



13 

to prevent, if possible, any egress from it, and be prepared 
for any emergency that an extended conspiracy might render 
necessary. 

" There was a general rush of our citizens to Tenth street, 
wliere, in a dwelling opposite the theatre, lay the dying 
form of Abraham Lincoln, surrounded by his almost distracted 
wife, his weeping son, his cabinet ministers, generals, emi- 
nent physicians, and many others whose positions gained 
them ready admittance to the side of the dying President. 

"I stood at his bedside in the early hours of the morning, 
and there witnessed such a scene of solemnity and grief as 
I never saw before, and hope never to see again. 

" ' There was silence, deep as death, 
And the boldest held his breath — ' " 

as if it were almost sacrilege to interrupt the solemn stillness 
about that dying couch. 

" The stern Secretary of War sat with his head bowed down 
in grief; the good and kind Secretary of the Navy stood as 
if transfixed with sorrow ; the ever mild and sunny counte- 
nances of the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of the 
Interior, the Postmaster General, and the Attorney General 
were now overspread with the clouds of distress and mourn- 
ing; Major General Halleck, who had naturally assumed 
the direction of affairs, was quietly moving about, fixing his 
large, and most expressive, eyes on everything that seemed 
to require attention, and directing, in whispered tones of 
sadness, what should be done. The noble form of Sumner, 
seated ne^.r the head of the bed, was bowed low, and tears 
flowed fi'om many eyes unused to weep. 

" Not long after sunrise, 1 should think (time could not 
well be counted, and the heavens were weeping in a gentle 
rain) at the request of some of the personal friends of Mrs. 
Lincoln, I went, in the President's carriage, after Mrs. 
Secretary Welles; and ere I could return the noble martyr 
had ceased breathing. 

" I witnessed the bearing of the remains to the Presiden- 
tial mansion ; saw them removed from the temporary coffin 
in which they were borne there, and from that time until 
they were placed in the car at the railroad depot for trjins- 
portation to Illinois, I was much of the time with them. My 
official duties made me almost one of the President's house- 
hold, and on all public occasions I stood at his side or near 
him, and I felt as if, even had duty not demanded my pres- 
ence, I could not leave the inanimate form of him of whom 
I had seen so much, and whom I loved so well in life. 



14 

" The days of preparation passed by ; the lying in state in 
the East Room, where thousands stood at the side of their 
beloved and martyred chief, and paid to his memory the 
tribute of respect with streaming eyes ; t)ie funeral services, 
attended by the noble assemblage of all who aided the 
Executive in the performance of his arduous duties in 
Washington ; hundreds of the most respectable civilians of 
the country; the full diplomatic corps, wdiose rich dresses 
were in marked contrast to their sad, sad countenances — for 
they all loved Abraham Lincoln ; the mourners, not only of 
the family, but from his native and his adopted States ; the 
reverend clergy in full numbers — -I witnessed it all. 

"I listened, with a most melancholy but proud satisfaction, 
to the religious services, full of submissive piety, but also 
full of exalted patriotism. I saw the immense concourse of 
people, civil and militarj^ who crowded Pennsylvania Avenue 
from Georgetown to the Capitol, as the funeral cortege 
passed along, marking, by their bowed forms, and their 
sighs and tears, their deep grief at the loss of one whom 
they had looked upon as their father. I saw the sacred re- 
mains deposited on the catafalque in the centre of tlie 
Rotunda of the Capitol, with the semblages of grief all 
around it, and heard the pious and eloquent divine, who had 
been from the first at the side of the departed and his 
mourning family (Dr. Gurley), repeat with great impressive- 
ness, earnestness and devotion, so much of the burial service 
as was appropriate, ending with a prayer. The crowd then 
departed. The guard of honor, which had been ever present 
since the sad catastrophe, consisting of at least one Major 
General and his staff, and often of two, were left in charge 
of the body. 

" At eight o'clock on Thui'sday morning the coffin was 
opened and the crowd admitted ; and between that time and 
ten o'clock in the evening, nearly forty thousand persons 
looked, in sorrow and in tears, upon that beloved face. 

"At six o'clock, A. M., on Friday, there were assembled in 
the Rotunda, the cabinet ministers, the committee who were 
to accompany the remains, the Rev. Dr. Gurle^-, Lieut. Gen. 
Grant, and many other high officers of the army, the police 
of the Capitol, and a few prominent citizens. Dr. Gurley 
addressed, with deep fervor and great impressiveness, the 
Throne of Grace, and his prayer found a solemn response, I 
doubt not, in every bosom. 

" The coffin was then closed, and was borne by twelve ser- 
geants to the hearse, and being escorted by a battalion of 



15 

the Veteran Reserve Corps, was followed by Lieut. Gen. 
Grant and Brig. Gen. Hardee, arm in arm, and many other 
officers of the army; the Commissioner of Public Buildings, 
and Captain of the Capitol Police, all on foot; and by the 
President and Heads of the Departments, and the Committee, 
in carriages, to the Baltimore Depot, where it was placed in a 
car, deeply and most appropriatel}^ draped in mourning, and 
prepared for the occasion, where the reverend clergyman 
again oifered up a prayer to the Father of us all ; and at eight 
o'clock the train moved off, and he whom we all loved so 
well, and for whom we would have willingly given our own 
lives, was borne in solemnity and gloom, towards his final 
resting-place in the bosom of the State which gave him to 
us." 

" Unveil thy bosom,. faithful tomb, 
Take this new treasure to thy trust. 
And give these sacred relics room, 
To slumber in the silent dust." 

Thus the remains of Abraham Lincoln left us to find a 
resting place in the capital of his adopted and beloved 
home. 

It was one grand, solemn, and imposing funeral procession 
from Washington to Illinois ; and I have been told by a 
gentleman who accompanied it, that no dwelling was passed 
in all that distance, whether the palace of the rich, or the 
humble cottage of the poor, that did not exhibit some out- 
ward badge of the grief that reigned within. 

And now, my fellow-citizens, we have erected, as I believe, 
the first public statue to the memory of that President who, 
more than any other since Washington, lived, and ever will 
live, in the hearts of the loyal people. Hcre^ where he earned 
his highest honors; here, where he won from all who knew 
him — and who is there that did not know him ? — golden 
opinions; here, where in the midst of his friends, while en- 
joying a brief respite from the cares and perplexities of his 
exalted but laborious station, he was struck down in death, 
by the hand of the foul and cowardly assassin, have we, this 
day, placed upon its pedestal, the plain, unassuming, but 
almost speaking semblance of that plain, unassuming, but 
noble and godlike specimen of human nature. 

We have erected it where the earliest kiss of rosy day, as 
she approaches from the east, may fall upon it, and where 
the last gleam of evening's mellow light may salute it, as the 
twilight darkens into night. 

Here it stands, as it were in the j^laza of the city ; and 



16 

here it will stand, we hope, to be seen by generations long 
hence to come. 

Let the fathers of the city, in times of trouble, gather 
around it, and acquire inspiration by calling to mind the 
firmness, patience, fidelity, zeal, and nobleness of character 
of him whom it represents. 

Let the generations of young men gather around it, and 
recall, as their example and their guide, the virtue, sobriety, 
modesty, and uprightness of life and purpose of that great 
man. 

And let us all bear in mind, and ever profit by the re- 
membrance, how Abraham Lincoln placed all his trust in 
God, and implored His blessing upon every act of his ex- 
emplary life. 

* * * " God called him hence to lay his armor down, 
To take his more than conqueror's wreath, his martyr's glorious crown. 
In the great hosts of freedom's sons, our Lincoln leads the van, 
Himself the greatest, ' noblest work of God, an honest man.' 

" Arise then, oh my country, rise ! be worthy of his fame, 
Lift high the banner of the right, put all its foes to shame. 
Follow where Lincoln's footsteps led, his spirit be your own, 
'Twill lead you on to victory, 'twill lead you to God's throne ! " 



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